OCTOBER 15, 1912 



669 



a struggle which lasts day and night. The 

 bees cover the beetle, but find it impossible 

 to sting it to death because it is covered 

 with a horny sheath. They finally suc- 

 ceed in dragging it out a few inches, and 

 then the beetle deliberately begins to force 

 its way back to the entrance of the hive. 

 They have been such a pest in my yard 

 that I have killed 16 on one hive in a single 

 week. You can imagine that this continual 

 fight against the beetle has spoiled the tem- 

 pers of the bees, so that they cease to 

 draw any distinction betAveen the beetle 

 with the hard skin and the man with the 

 soft one. 



BACK-LOT PROFIT. 



Before closing I beg to say that the year 

 1912 has certainly proved to my satisfac- 

 '-on that bees can be kept with profit in a 

 ( Vy backyard. In April, 1911, I pur- 

 chased a three-frame nucleus and tested 

 queen which built up into a magnificent 

 colony during the season. Honey was so 

 scarce that I found it necessary to feed 

 about 20 pounds of sugar in the late fall, 

 but this was money well spent, as the hive 

 came out of the cellar in April, 1912, with 

 a tremendous colony well supplied with 

 stores. In the early part of May this 

 original colony swarmed, and from these 

 two colonies I have already taken off over 

 150 lbs. of beautiful white-clover honey, 

 nearly half of it in sections. Aside from 

 this, both hives are running over with bees, 

 and every particle of available space is 



filled with white-clover honey, which is 

 sealed for the winter. There is practically 

 no pasturage nearer than a mile and a half, 

 and it is very likely that a great deal of 

 this honey was gathered as far as three 

 miles away. 



For the benefit of any office man who 

 may see this, I would say that I should 

 keep one or two colonies of bees for the 

 mere pleasure of observing them, even if 

 they did not yield a pound of honey in 

 excess of their own requirements. To one 

 Avho has the slightest taste for such things 

 it is a great relaxation and pleasure to 

 leave the office, to forget business worries, 

 and study nature at first hand. Such little 

 incidents as beetles and an excess of queens 

 at the time of supersedure merely add in- 

 terest and pleasurable excitement. 



Detroit, Mich., Sept. 11. 



FOUR ENTRANCES ON ONE SIDE OF A WIN- 

 TER CASE 



BY F. F. GEORGE 



In my ajDiary I have 62 colonies of hy- 

 brid bees, 1 to 4 in a ease, as shown in the 

 engraving. The cases are packed in win- 

 ter with a mixture of chaff and sawdust. 

 I find that the hieroglyphics on the hive 

 fronts do not prevent the bees from occa- 

 sionally getting into the wrong hive. 



The contracted entrances indicate new 

 swarms. A dummy can be slipped from 



George's packing-cases with the entrances all on one side, 



